Old Girlfriends 5: Leela
by MizJoely
Summary: Now that Ace knows Peri's fate, she can't wait to find out about Leela. 5th in the series. Rating is M due to content of last chapter.
1. Breaking the Silence

"Leela, did she really go off and leave you for that Andred chap?"

"Three months almost to the day," was the Doctor's cryptic reply.

"What are you on about now, Professor?" Ace peered down at him. Once again, he was mucking about with the base of the TARDIS console. Unlike the last few times she found him there, he was actually closing it up when she came into the Console room. There were no dangling wires, the tools were actually stowed neatly away in their container, except of course for the sonic screwdriver. Which he carefully placed into said container before rising to his feet and dusting his hands together with an air of general satisfaction.

"It has been three months almost to the day since you found out about Peri," the Doctor deigned to explain. "I expected you to ask before this."

"Yeah, well, we've been busy, haven't we?" Ace scowled. "Chasing cheetahs."

"Hmm," was the Doctor's only response as he busied himself with securing his tool chest. With a grunt he shoved it aside and rose to his feet. "Yes, cheetahs. You came out of that all right."

Ace thought she detected a trace of...something in his voice. Anxiety? Concern? "Yeah, I guess I did," she replied with a grin. "Some of it was fun. The feeling I had..." A hint of longing colored her voice and eyes, quickly banished. "Anyway, not the killing. And not the Master. Had enough of that one, I have."

"Yes, and I as well," the Doctor agreed. "Is that what made you think of Leela? The thrill of the hunt, giving in to primitive instincts?"

"Maybe." Ace shrugged. "I thought you might need a break, that's all. It had nothing to do with Peri," she added, returning to his earlier comment. The one he'd thought she'd been ignoring. "Did you think it bothered me, knowing she was still around?" She waved vaguely toward the TARDIS walls and the quiet rise and fall of the Time Rotor.

"It had occurred to me, yes," the Doctor said, leaning his elbows casually on the edge of the console. "You didn't seem pleased at the idea."

Ace shrugged. "Just surprised me, that's all. Never expected it, but you said she's all part of the TARDIS, right? Not even really herself any more?"

"That's an oversimplification, but essentially correct," the Doctor agreed. "No need for paranoia, my girl."

"I'm not paranoid," was Ace's spirited response. "It was kind of creepy at first, but she's been here the whole time I have, so if something was going to happen it would've already, right? And Mel made it through all right." Her logic wasn't exactly solid, but the Doctor chose not to point that fact out, merely nodded agreement to her words. "So Peri's on board. Right. But now I wanted to ask about Leela."

"And so you have," the Doctor replied with a grin. "Shall we adjourn to a more comfortable location? I'm not up to sitting on the floor any longer today, and could do with a spot of tea. Meet me in the little kitchen in 20 minutes or so, and I'll answer your questions. With the usual qualifications and disclaimers, of course."

Ace rolled her eyes. "Of course, Professor. Of course." Her eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. "And lets not have any nonsense about otters in heat, eh? No funny stuff this time."

"No funny stuff," the Doctor agreed. He waited until she'd left the Console Room to smile. The smile turned rapidly into a frown as he actually considered her words. "No funny stuff," he repeated. "Well, that might be difficult, considering the nature of my relationship with Leela..." He headed out of the Console Room, deep in thought. The door slammed shut, then reopened a moment later as he sheepishly returned, picked up the tool box, and left again.


	2. Girl Talk

**oOo**

It was closer to a half an hour before Ace appeared in the little kitchen that had quickly become her favorite. During various explorations of the TARDIS she'd discovered no less than five kitchens, each different to the rest. Of course, she hadn't rediscovered all of them since that first bout of reconnaissance, but she suspected the TARDIS knew which one she favored and made sure she found it whenever she decided to go for a bite to eat. "One time I'm going to want the one with all the wine," she muttered, half to herself and half to the TARDIS. "I'm not that far off from legal." She paused. "Whatever legal is in outer space. Oi, Doctor! What's the legal drinking age on a TARDIS?"

He was sitting at the table, a cup of tea already steaming in front of him, a second cup still on the counter with the cream and sugar beside it. "You can have your tea whenever you like," he replied, deliberately obtuse. Ace sighed. "I suppose I'd set it at whatever the legal drinking age was on your home world at the time you left it," he said with a shrug. "No one's ever asked before, at least, no one who wasn't already old enough by their own standards. I imagine you're not quite there yet, but traveling with me does tend to age a person, at least mentally. Why, did you fancy a glass of wine?"

Ace shook her head and busied herself with her tea. "Nah, not today. I just never thought about it before. I guess I'll know when I'm ready."

"I guess you will," the Doctor murmured in response. "If anyone knows their own mind, it's you."

Ace beamed at the rare compliment. "That's me, someone who knows their own mind. Leela was like that, was she?"

"If you ever wish to pursue a career in comedy, you'll have to work on your segues," the Doctor said with a grimace. "Subtle as ever."

"Well? Wasn't she?"

"Yes, she was," the Doctor finally capitulated. "In every sense of the word. In some ways, Leela was the most innocent of all my traveling companions, although far from the youngest."

"Innocent? Even with all that knife throwing?" Ace objected.

The Doctor nodded, unperturbed. "Innocent in the sense that she had a very clear idea of how the universe worked. Her notions of right and wrong were very sharply defined, and she never considered any situation too complex that it couldn't be resolved with a weapon. Which always made me wonder how she got on with Gallifreyan politics..."

"She didn't seem the type to fancy living there. Bunch of stuffed shirts ordering her about, probably telling her how to live her life and that she wasn't good enough for Andred..."

"I can only imagine," the Doctor agreed. Ace had never been on his home world, but she certainly had it pegged. "But that's her life now, and if she wanted to leave it I wouldn't doubt that she could do so without anyone's help."

Ace grinned. She could hardly believe how cooperative the Doctor was being lately, these past few months. Talking to her, really telling her things, personal things, things she never would have dreamed he would share with her even a year ago. No, strike that; even six months ago. When she'd approached him about Sarah Jane, she'd gotten only the barest sketch, a few details penciled in and the rest a great blank nothing. Now, he seemed almost as eager to share his memories as she was to hear them. Her grin faded, then turned to a suspicious frown. "Oi! You're not dying or something, are you?"

The Doctor stared at her. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

Ace's shrug wasn't nearly as indifferent as she wanted it to be. "Dunno. You tellin' me everything I ask about, I guess. Thought maybe you felt it was like confession." She peered at him intently. "You don't feel it coming on, do you? Regeneration?"

He shook his head. "No. And I do have a sense of that sort of thing, in case you're wondering." _In case you're worried_, he amended silently.

"So then why are you telling me so much? Not that I mind, but I was just curious," Ace backpedaled hastily. She didn't want to scare him off for good; who knew how many stories he had to tell.

Her question gave him pause; why _was_ he sharing so much with her? "I suppose it's because you're the first one who ever asked," he replied, sounding as uncertain as she'd ever heard him.

"What, not even Mel? Not even Sarah Jane? The _reporter_?" Ace was incredulous. "Well, maybe she didn't want to know about the ones you were with before her." She sounded doubtful.

The Doctor hesitated before speaking. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Ace. None of my first three selves ever engaged in, that is to say, none of them ever became as, er, _attached_ to any of their traveling companions as my fourth self did. Not even my later selves, in case you haven't noticed."

She'd noticed, all right. Hard to miss how prone to becoming, er, _attached_ his fourth self had been. "But none of the ones before him? Not even Jo Grant?" Ace sounded disappointed.

"Sorry, my dear, but this is likely to be the last 'once upon a time' you'll get from me," the Doctor confirmed. "My first self didn't start traveling until after Susan was born, and no," he added quickly, noting the eager expression on her face, "I am not going to tell you about Susan's grandmother." Mostly, of course, because he couldn't remember who exactly she was, but he was never going to admit that to anyone, not even Ace. Ace, who was as much like a daughter to him as the unknown woman who had become Susan's mother. He knew that much, at least; it was a daughter of his that was Susan's mother. Whether the knowledge of their identities was deliberately hidden or merely a fatality of regenerative trauma, he had no idea. But he did have a vague sense that the lot of them, all of Susan's other immediate family, were out of bounds, and so he chose to leave them.

"Well, what about your second and third selves, then?" Ace wasn't ready to drop the subject, not completely. She'd come back to that one another time. "Didn't they fall for _anyone_? Maybe you just got regeneration amnesia; are you sure Jo wasn't one of your girls?"

"Positive." The Doctor's voice was withering. "My second self had undergone forced regeneration not long after letting Susan go off to live her own life, so his interest in 'girls' tended toward the paternal."

"Well, what about number three?" Ace persisted. This wasn't getting her any closer to hearing about Leela, but she was almost as fascinated by the Doctor's purported lack of stories as she was the one she'd set out to hear. She had a suspicion he wasn't being entirely honest with her, but whether she could one day get the truth out of him only time would tell.

"Number three," the Doctor replied firmly, "courted somewhat Victorian standards in his relationships with his companions. But he started becoming interested in Sarah Jane just before regenerating, so I suppose that's why number four–why I–responded to her interest so quickly." He sounded as if he were just figuring this out for himself. "When she kissed me, I didn't even pause to think about why I was reacting so strongly," he mused. "I just–kissed her back."

"Did Leela kiss you first?" Ace steered the discussion back to the subject at hand. Fascinating though this further insight into the Doctor was, she was anxious to hear how that relationship had started.

"Actually, I think we started that particular phase of our relationship together, a mutual first kiss, if you will," the Doctor replied. And what a first kiss it had been...


	3. Girl Interrupted

**ooOoo**

The Doctor pulled back, gasping for breath. He tasted the iron tang of blood on his lip, and dabbed automatically at it with his tongue. Leela was breathing just as hard, her skin flushed as she pushed her dark hair away from her face. She reached for him again, pulling him closer, and he let himself be pulled, as eager to continue the experience as she was...

"No otters!"

The Doctor frowned as Ace interrupted the narrative in strident tones overlain with veins of panic. He looked at her. She, too, was flushed, but not with passion. Well, not the kind of passion that marked his relationship with Leela. "Ace, are you telling me, after all attempts to get me offer up exactly this kind of detail, that you have changed your mind?"

"That was just teasing," Ace mumbled, fiddling with the handle of her tea cup. "And you never were going to tell me, least I thought you weren't, but now you kind of are and I guess I'mnotreadytohearit."

"What was that?" the Doctor asked innocently.

Ace glared at him. "You heard me."

The Doctor settled back in his chair with a chuckle. "So I did. And I'd promised myself not to tease you, but here I am doing it again. Sorry."

"No you're not." Ace was sullen.

"Actually, you're right; I'm not," the Doctor admitted. "But you started this, so why are you backing down now?" His eyes were challenging.

Ace raised her chin. "I'm not backing down, Professor. I'm just...changing my mind."

The Doctor wasn't backing down, either. "Why?"

Ace shrugged and played with her tea spoon. "Because you're right, it's none of my business," she admitted. "None of this is, but you've been super about sharing, so I guess I should, I dunno, respect the boundaries you put up."

It was a generous admission, and the Doctor was surprised and touched. "Thank you, Ace," he said. "I appreciate that." Simple words, but he meant them as much as she meant what she said, felt them as deeply.

However, it also left him pondering exactly how to proceed from this point. Not that he'd had a plan, exactly, but any vague thoughts he'd had as to how to handle this particular conversation had flown away.

It had been very different with Leela, more than he would ever be able to admit to Ace. Sarah Jane's curiosity, Tegan's brashness, Romana's intellectualism, Peri's freshness...they all brought something beyond mere physicality to the relationship. Even the dichotomy they often presented gave it dimension. Sarah Jane's gradual dependence on him, Tegan's emotional vulnerability, Romana's occasional arrogance, Peri's rather more frequent obtuseness all brought different levels to their interaction. But with Leela, what you saw was what you got, as they saying went. The Earth saying. She aspired to nothing more than taking everything as it came, one day at a time, and reveled in her ignorance of the greater universe even while embracing the challenges it threw at her. With gusto.

That, at least, was something he felt comfortable sharing. "Leela had a great deal of zest for life," he said. "She was quite passionate, and not just in the 'otter' sense. She essentially stowed away on the TARDIS, entering it without my permission and to my very great annoyance. Once I tracked her down, she managed to persuade me to allow her to stay, and so I did..."

The "persuasion" she used had been her body. She'd literally tackled him in the wardrobe room, there was no other way to put it. He remembered it quite vividly; no amount of regenerative trauma was a match for that particular moment. He fell silent as the memories washed over him, feeling Ace's eyes upon him but knowing damn well that he would tell her very little about his time with Leela. Certainly not the part he was remembering now...


	4. Passionate Kisses

**oooOooo**

"I wish to travel with you, to see other worlds. But you see me as a child, and I am forced to show you that I am not." With those words, she'd stood up, releasing him from the stranglehold she had on his scarf, taking her knee out of the small of his back. She'd been hiding behind the door, waiting for him to come fully into the room, lured on by the sight of her "accidentally" dropped pouch of Janus thorns. When he'd reached for it, she'd jumped him. From behind. Rather unsporting, but considering the difference in size between them, he could hardly fault her tactics.

He slowly rolled over, eyebrows reaching for the brim of his hat as he realized she had divested herself of more than just her pouch of thorns. She was, in fact, completely naked. He remained prone out of something very much like shock as she knelt by his side, reaching carefully for his hat and placing it gently on the floor next to his left elbow. "I am not a child," she repeated. "Can you see that?"

He'd nodded, any and all words he might have spoken lying tangled behind the sudden dryness of his throat. She leaned forward, her hair brushing his cheeks. "I wish to stay with you, Doctor," she'd murmured, pressing her hands against his shoulders, gently levering him back to the wardrobe floor. It was strewn with clothes, offering an eccentric sort of mattress, and he allowed himself to be pushed. When she leaned closer, her breasts brushing against his chest, nipples hardening at the contact, he groaned. Suddenly there were too many layers of clothes between them. His hands rose of their own volition, fumbling with the buttons, Leela eagerly helping him with the unfamiliar fastenings and fabrics, adding them to the other discarded pieces lying in heaps all about them.

The kiss came not long after he'd removed himself of his jacket, waistcoat and shirt, while Leela impatiently tugged his scarf from around his neck, giggling at its length. He'd caught her arms, their eyes had met, and she'd moved forward at the same time he did. Their lips met with a violence that caught him off guard, startled him even as it aroused his most primitive instincts...not to mention certain body parts.

After a moment he pulled back, gasping for breath. He tasted the iron tang of blood on his lip, and dabbed automatically at it with his tongue. Leela was breathing just as hard, her skin flushed as she pushed her dark hair away from her face. She reached for him again, pulling him closer, and he let himself be pulled, as eager to continue the experience as she was...

**oooOooo**

No matter how much he teased Ace, no matter how much she'd initially teased him, details like that were best kept to himself. And therein lay his dilemma; the way their relationship had started was pretty well how it had continued. Right up to the end, when she'd started pulling away, abruptly making herself unavailable for long stretches of time. Even before they landed on Gallifrey and found it at war, and a sympathetic Chancellory Guard on hand...

"Leela was determined to prove to me she was an adult, and I was quite willing to let her," he finally said, gazing intently into his cup. Ace sipped her own tea, waiting as patiently as he'd ever seen her wait for anything. "We shared our first kiss and, er, other things, almost immediately after she thrust herself into the TARDIS." He winced; poor choice of words that, but at least there was a grin tugging at the corners of Ace's lips, so he'd managed not to stray too far into "otter" territory. "Of course I allowed her to stay, but I never could seem to stop trying to civilize her. I think that might have been what drove her to stay on Gallifrey. With Andred," he admitted quietly. He'd long given up trying to figure out why he was sharing all this with Ace. Perhaps it was as simple as needing to tell someone, to share his feelings for the remarkable women who'd come in and out of his life. "I could never seem to stop myself lecturing her, criticizing her for being exactly who she was."

"You couldn't help wanting to change her, is that it? Even though the bits you were trying to change were the bits you liked best," Ace said, and once again the Doctor found himself marveling at her ability to get right to the heart of the matter. Even when the matter was his own heart.

"Exactly. Andred, apparently, didn't try to do that, although he'd hardly have had time, what with dodging Sontarans and trying to stave off a full invasion of Gallifrey." A certain critical tone had entered the Doctor's voice, and he deliberately forced it down. "In any case, she decided it was time to leave, and she did so with the exact same single-minded determination with which she entered my life. I had nothing to say about it either way," the Doctor concluded. He took a sip of his tea, grimacing as he realized he'd let it go cold. "Of all the romantic entanglements I allowed myself, the one I shared with Leela was both the most simplistic and at the same time to most complex. I already told you I felt she was the most innocent of all my companions, but don't misunderstand; she was no child, no innocent when it came to sexual knowledge."

"I'm still a virgin," Ace suddenly blurted out.

The Doctor stared at her, distracted and unsettled by that unexpected revelation. Unexpected to Ace as well, he thought, judging by the sudden rush of blood to her face. "Well." He stopped, completely at a loss for words.

"There's been a few chaps, you know, back home and even while I've been traveling with you," Ace rushed on, in spite of the redness of her features, the nervous movements of her hands. "But it never seemed right. And I guess I wanted to wait for the right one." She stopped, as abruptly as she'd started, still staring at him, all defiance gone, looking as young as she actually was for once in her life.

"Ace, that's very commendable of you," the Doctor said slowly. Feeling his way. "But I'm not sure why you felt the need to tell me this. It's not necessary, I don't expect tit for tat when it comes to personal confessions."

"My mum, she had boyfriends when I was younger. Lots of them, after my dad left." Ace spoke as if she hadn't heard his words, and her eyes were focused on the middle distance. Much, the Doctor suspected, as his own had been during a great deal of the stories he'd shared with her. "Most of them ignored me, but some liked to hit things when they were drunk. Mum, mostly, but sometimes me." Her voice was very soft. The Doctor sat quite still, sensing that any movement from him might bring this particular moment to an end. "Mum put up with it, except when they tried to...touch me." A light shudder rippled her frame, but her voice remained steady. "Then she'd pitch them out, no second chances. It was the only real watching over me she did," she added, a note of bitterness creeping into her voice. "Rest of the time she had no idea where I was or what I was doing. But at night, when her fellows came round, she finally paid attention, made sure they kept their filthy hands to themselves. And I told myself I'd never be like that. So I haven't." She fell abruptly silent.

"I'm very sorry to hear that, Ace." The Doctor spoke softly, soothingly, but not pityingly. She'd never accept even the hint of that in his or anyone else's voice. "But at least your mother did have some sense of protectiveness toward you."

Ace shrugged, not bothering to feign indifference. The Doctor had laid it all out for her, the least she could do was return the courtesy. "I never could tell if it was that she was trying to keep me safe, or that she just didn't want them to pay attention to anyone else but her."

"When offered alternate versions of reality, I generally prefer to accept the kinder of the options," the Doctor replied gently. "Except with Peri, of course," he felt constrained to add. "Except when the Master is the one offering the happy ending."

"Course, you'd have to be a nutter to listen to him," Ace agreed, some of her somberness lifting. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "So, Professor, is Leela really it? The last one you'll tell me about?" She'd said all she wanted to about her own situation, and the Doctor realized that by telling her not only about his relationships but also about the painful bits, he'd enabled her to share her own less-than-happy memories with him. He felt honored.

"She's the last one there is to tell anything about," the Doctor corrected her as he stood up, pushing his chair back and stretching slightly. He picked up his tea cup, turning to dump it in the sink. "I've already told you that, Ace."

"What about Susan's grandmother, then?" The Doctor went very still; it was the one story he'd hoped she'd forget about. "She really was your granddaughter, right?"

"Yes, she really is my granddaughter, and her mother was my daughter, and that is all I have to say on that particular subject, young lady." He turned, finally, to look at her. Sternly. "Leela was the last, and I ask that you accept that and let it be."

Ace studied him, then gave a tiny nod. A reluctant nod. A nod, the Doctor realized with a sudden flash of foreboding, that only conceded defeat for the moment. "Right, boundaries. Got it." Ace drained her cup, then tossed it to the Doctor, who caught it automatically and placed it in the sink next to his. Then Ace stood up, walked over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for sharing. I mean it. And when you're ready to share the rest, I'm ready to listen."

The Doctor stared after her as she exited the kitchen. "Oh, my," was all he could find to say. Ace being patient about this meant only one thing: she was more determined than ever to have her way. And God help him, he wasn't sure who would win this particular round.

**The End**


End file.
